Edwards, the 70-year-old four-time governor of Louisiana, quipped during a recess in a hearing Thursday that the FBI wiretapped and bugged him "everywhere except the bedroom," including his favorite steakhouse.

He said that since an FBI raid on his office last spring,

"I've come to believe it went beyond that. I think they recorded my conversations in restaurants, in parking lots, when I went out on the street, on the tennis courts, on a fishing boat, wherever. They had a 100 percent full-court press on me."

The spying equipment included a lipstick-sized remote control camera attached on the side of a piece of acoustic tile in his office, Edwards said.

DeBartolo, Edwards, Edwards' son, Stephen, and four others are suspected of fraud, extortion and other crimes in connection with gambling in Louisiana.

In addition, State Sen. Greg Tarver of Shreveport acknowledged Thursday that he had received a letter informing him that he is the subject of the probe.

Former Rep. Cleo Fields, D-New Orleans, also has been sent a letter identifying him as a subject of the investigation.

"I'm not worried one iota," Fields said.

At least one other high state official is believed to be in the grand jury's cross hairs.

In late April, FBI agents seized $468,981 in cash from the Edwardses' safe deposit boxes and the home of Edwin Edwards. About $400,000 of that money was cash paid by DeBartolo to Edwards, the former governor has acknowledged.

Edwards insisted on Thursday the money is legal income from a business transaction with DeBartolo, but he declined to reveal the precise nature of that transaction.

"Why should I have to explain why I deal in cash?" Edwards asked the New Orleans Times Picayune. "I claim it on my tax return. It is accepted by law for all debts, public and private. But a lot of times, you make a better deal when you pay in cash.

"Only two people know what that money was for: Eddie DeBartolo and myself. None of the cash fees was for legal fees. Now, consulting is another thing, but I'm not even acknowledging that the money DeBartolo gave me is even mine. It could have been for someone else."

However, it is believed to have figured in DeBartolo's plan, earlier in the year, to obtain a license to operate a riverboat casino near Shreveport.

Prosecutors say the cash is the product of illegal activity, and have fought tenaciously - and so far successfully - to retain physical possession of it, in order to subject it to bill-by-bill microscopic examination at an FBI laboratory.

Edwards and his attorney, Mike Fawer, say the money from DeBartolo was merely for Edwards' services as a consultant on the Louisiana state regulatory process.

"I was not a public official, and he couldn't have bribed me," Edwards said, but it "might be a good supposition" that the money was for lobbying purposes.

He added: "Nothing that we did involves anything improper or illegal, and he never asked me to do anything improper."

Edwards also said he is reserving the right to surprise prosecutors with the real story behind the deal.

"It will be an interesting day when they bring that up," Edwards said. "These things have a capacity to clear as well as they smear."

A report Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources, said DeBartolo and Edwards were captured on government wiretaps talking about money and dumb politicians, but there was no mention of payoffs.

The Newhouse News Service, also quoting unidentified sources, said FBI agents secretly recorded DeBartolo offering to pay Edwards as much as $400,000.

In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI found a document in the law office shared by Edwards and his son stating that DeBartolo would pay Stephen Edwards $50,000 a month for five years for unspecified services. DeBartolo had not signed the document, the newspaper reported.

Large cash payments from one person to another are legal and subject to reporting requirements only under certain conditions, an Internal Revenue Service spokesman said Thursday.

If the money is a gift over $10,000, the donor is subject to a gift tax.

If it is payment for goods or services, the payer does not have to report it unless it is claimed as a tax deduction. However, the payee would have to report the cash income to the IRS.

All cash withdrawals over $10,000 are also subject to reporting to the IRS by the financial institutions that release the funds.

Edwards' defense mirrors the one he used successfully in 1986, when a jury acquitted him of using improper influence in awarding hospital construction contracts.

He was not a public official at the time and was operating as a private businessman, Edwards contended.

Graham is a Texan who has been involved in a number of business deals with Texas politicians - including a failed venture with former Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz to move the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team to New Orleans.

According to published reports, Graham pleaded guilty last June to charges of soliciting a $150,000 payoff to help a murderer escape prison. Graham's lawyer reportedly has said sentencing has been postponed while Graham cooperates with the Louisiana investigation.

"Pat Graham was an FBI informant and Edwin says he's the source of all this," Koch said.

To the extent it involves DeBartolo, the current investigation focuses on events surrounding Louisiana's 15th and last gambling license, which was awarded last March to a partnership that included DeBartolo and the Hollywood Casino Corp. of Texas.

DeBartolo withdrew from the project last summer, after the Louisiana State Gaming Control Board demanded he furnish all the documents he had earlier given to the grand jury, including the unexecuted agreement between him and Stephen Edwards.

The DeBartolo family has extensive business interests in Louisiana, including the big CNG office building in downtown Baton Rouge, the New Orleans Centrex, which is attached to the Superdome, and Louisiana Downs Racetrack in Bossier City, in the northern part of the state.

Paul Burgess, executive director of the Louisiana State Racing Commission, repeated Thursday that DeBartolo's possible indictment would have no effect on Louisiana Downs.

Edwards lost his bid Thursday to have the Baton Rouge grand jury dissolved on the grounds that the jury selection process - while not intentionally discriminatory - excluded too many African Americans.

U.S. District Judge John Parker characterized the motion as a publicity stunt.

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But in an unusual joint hearing, in which both Parker and Judge Frank Polozola heard arguments from government and defense attorneys, Edwards was allowed to obtain records from the 1989-94 grand jury panel in order to examine the selection process in detail.

"We came, we conquered and now we seek," said the suave, silver-haired Edwards, who is known as "Fast Eddie" around the statehouse and freely acknowledges that he has received target letters from 22 previous grand juries.&lt;

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